In the News

Safety of babywipes and their ingredients

16 February 2017

You may have read reports in the media about a recent article published by Which? questioning the ingredients used in babywipes. CTPA is extremely disappointed at the stories and can understand the alarm and worry they must have caused the many millions of parents using such wipes on their babies. CTPA would like to allay any fears the articles may have raised and stress that all cosmetic products aimed for use on children, including wipes, and the ingredients used in them are safe to use.

Safety rules

There are three layers to the safety assurance process:

Strict European legislation requires cosmetics and their ingredients to be safe.

The professional Safety Assessor personally signs-off to say the cosmetic product is safe.

Products placed on the market are monitored; any adverse reactions are addressed by companies and may have to be reported to the authorities.

In addition to the legally-required safety assessment that all cosmetic products must pass, a more detailed assessment is required for any cosmetic product which is intended to be used on children under three years old. The safety assessment takes account of all the ingredients used in the product, irrespective of their source, so whether ingredients are 'natural', ‘organic’ or 'man-made' has no bearing on how safe they are in the cosmetic product. The assessment looks at how the product will be used, by whom, where it will be applied and how often.

Cosmetic products intended to be used on babies and infants are specially formulated. For example, they use milder cleansers, low levels of fragrance, if at all, and carefully control the pH to ensure compatibility with baby skin.